Carbon County is hoping to make its employees a little happier this Christmas holiday with an extra day off.

On Thursday, the commissioners voted to close county offices on Christmas Eve to allow for the employees to have a little more time to spend with friends and family. The reason for the action was due to Christmas falling on a Tuesday this year, meaning that the closure now gives the employees a four-day holiday weekend.

Other matters

The commissioners also voted on or discussed the following items:

• Announced the annual salary board meeting will be held at 1:30 p.m. on Jan. 7, with the weekly commissioners meeting immediately following.

• Reappointed David Hawk of Lehighton, Dr. Carl Frankel of Hazleton and Barbara Fogal of Jim Thorpe to the Environmental Education Center Commission. Their terms shall run to Dec. 31, 2020.

• Reappointed Darryl Brewster of Lehighton to the parks and recreation commission. His term runs to Dec. 31, 2023.

• Approved a statewide interconnectivity grant in the amount of $181,688.43 from the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency for the following projects: $27,789.84 for annual maintenance on the ESInet fiber connection; $56,004.19 for the annual CAD maintenance with Tyler Technologies; $4,694.40 for texting service costs with the new Vesta phone system; $74,000 for a project that will update/upgrade the GIS equipment; and $19,200 to integrate the Rapid SOS location services into the shared Vesta phone system for the region.

• Approved a change order with Bruce George Paving and Excavating Inc. of Kunkletown for phase 1A of the Emergency Operations Training Center project. The change order extends the phase’s completion date for widening Emergency Lane from Nov. 24 to May 31, 2019.

• Commissioner Thomas J. Gerhard read a letter from a visitor commending one of the county’s parking attendants for his kindness. His act turned a very bad start of a day into a nice day for the visitor.

• Gerhard also reported that the animal shelter received two donations this month — over $1,700 from Ted and Sherry Snyder, who were married earlier this month and requested wedding gifts to be a donation to the shelter; and $500 from the Jim Thorpe Camping Resort.

• Approved the prison board appointments of Brian D. Lewis of Nesquehoning, corrections officer; and John F. Marinkovits of Lehighton, part-time corrections officer/Teamsters, both effective Dec. 3.

• Hired Annette E. Brown of Jim Thorpe, part-time clerk, archives, effective Dec. 3; and Lauren F. Frey of Lehighton, part-time dispatcher trainee, communications center, effective Dec. 5.

• Approved the changes of statuses for Alexander Z. Rankovich of Lehighton, from county caseworker I, children and youth; to 911 operator, communications center, effective Dec. 10; Sydney R. Wernett of Jim Thorpe, from special deputy sheriff trainee to special deputy sheriff, effective Nov. 16 and from special deputy sheriff to deputy sheriff, Dec. 3; and Kelly T. McElmoyle of Jim Thorpe, from public defender office manager to purchasing manager, effective Dec. 3.

• Approved the internships of Angela Mazzei of Nesquehoning in the adult probation office from Nov. 27 through Dec. 31; and Heather Schatz of Lehighton in the juvenile probation office from May 13 to June 23.